A round-up of the latest business environment and sustainability plans, including Gillette, Tetra Pak and Electrolux.
A 2 MW combined heat and power plant at Gillette’s factory in Berlin will reduce CO2 emissions by about 2,600 tonnes a year. The plant is being built by E.ON Connecting Energies and will provide the manufacturing site with heat, power and cooling. E.ON said the plant would help to reduce overall power consumption because absorption cooling will decrease the site’s annual power demand by around 2.5 GWh. The plant, which will be operating by the end of the year, will also cut public water consumption for cooling processes by 86%.
Cummins has launched a supplier programme to help to improve the engine manufacturer’s environmental impact and reduce its carbon footprint. Called the Environmental Innovation Gateway, it will support suppliers to develop innovative goods and services that can assist Cummins’ UK facilities in trying to surpass their environmental goals. Cummins has set global targets for 2020 to cut annual emissions by 3.5 million tonnes and direct water use by 33%.
The US Ball Corporation, which earlier this year acquired UK packaging firm Rexam, has reported that it has reduced the carbon footprint of its most common beverage can formats – such as the 330 ml size used for most soft drinks and beer – by 10% since 2010. The company said it was on course to meet its global Cut/4 CArboN target of 25% by 2020.
Tetra Pak’s latest sustainability report reveals that the carton company reduced emissions by 15% in 2015, while the number of packages sold increased by 16%. All the paperboard used in its products came from FSC-controlled wood sources. Since 2011, Tetra Pak has produced 6.4 million caps for cartons from bio-based plastic and 43 billion cartons were recycled in 2015.
Electrolux Group has announced social investments in food and related sustainability issues as part of its support for the UN sustainable development goals. It is setting up the Electrolux Food Foundation, which will invest 10m Swedish krona in projects to address issue such as hunger, poor nutrition and food waste.
